Optus is turning the heat up on its rivals with a new offer for customers to stream music without eating into their data allowance.
The telco's prepaid mobile customers will have data-free use of streaming apps including Spotify, Google Play Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio and Guvera from May 2.
The new service forms part of Optus' strategy to boost the content it offers in order to protect and grow its customer base.
"Music is the next pillar in Optus' strategy to deliver game changing entertainment experiences for customers," said Ben White, managing director of marketing and product at Optus.
Optus has already secured the broadcast rights to the next three English Premier League seasons for its Optus TV with Fetch, which also has 35 channels and access to streaming services like Netflix and Stan.
"We're clearly making a very major play in terms of trying to use content as a new source of differentiation for our services," Mr White told AAP.
No other telco currently offers data-free music streaming in Australia, according to Optus.
Australians are increasingly turning to their mobiles for entertainment, with around 78 per cent of 16-34 year olds streaming music on their devices, it said.
"Although Australia is a nation of music lovers, we know that data is the number one barrier for Optus customers when it comes to music streaming," Mr White said.
Data-free music streaming will be available to Optus mobile customers until June 2017, with the possibility of extensions.
Roughly half of Optus' 9.4 million mobile customers, which includes enterprise customers and customers from their wholesale partners, are pre-paid, Mr White said.
No financial details have been disclosed.
Optus' parent, Singapore Telecommunications, launched a data-free music service with Spotify, KKBOX, MeRadio and AMPed in February.
In the US, T-Mobile also offers customers unlimited music streaming to several apps, without getting hit with data charges.
